Crowchild plan met with rejoicing and resentment

A proposed plan to improve one of Calgary’s busiest traffic corridors has a lot of people happy, but many home and business owners absolutely furious.

The Crowchild Trail Corridor study is now at the public consultation level as planners are hard at work looking for ways to ease traffic on the busy route.

The plan is still a long way off; even if something is approved now, ground breaking won’t happen for another ten years.

It would take another 30 years to complete the proposed project.

It also won’t come cheap, with estimates coming in at nearly $1B.

However, there are no sources of funding in place for such an undertaking right now.

The city says that something does need to be done.

Ryan Murray, with Calgary Transportation Planning, says it needs to expand to accommodate the city’s growth. “Crowchild Trail was originally designed to handle 70,000 cars per day. Now it’s handling 100,000 per day.”

Murray says that something needs to be done so that 30 years down the road, we’ll have a road that can accommodate traffic changes expected for another three decades.

Planners are looking to add two new bridges over the Bow River, increase road capacity, lose the traffic lights along the route, and provide options for commuters.

The infrastructure needed for the plan will mean expropriating property and tearing down houses for new roads.

Councillor John Mar says there hasn’t been this kind of planning since the 1960s or 1970s.

He opposes the planning but sees there are some things that he is interested in looking at.

Gillian White, who lives in West Hillhurst, is worried what will happen when the expansion fills up. “What happens when the traffic expands to fill the road? It becomes a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Don Nich, who lives in Capitol Hill, is enthusiastic about the deal. “It’s time to go to the province, ask for the money, and get the thing built!”

The next public meeting is scheduled for Thursday at 5 p.m. at the Marda Loop Community Association.